


Life

by annuska



Series: Sonadow Week 2019 (Twitter) [1]
Category: Sonic the Hedgehog - All Media Types
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-16
Updated: 2019-06-16
Packaged: 2020-05-12 13:08:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 910
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19229755
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/annuska/pseuds/annuska
Summary: Shadow has had to get used to living life, but he isn't sure he can get used to living it with Sonic.





	Life

The words fly past in a blur, but touch of his thumb on the screen just before another downward flick gives a pause to read clearly:

 

i know ur at work but text me when u get a chance!! :D

lmao look @ this  
i bet u laughed irl dont lie

hey havent seen u in a few… u doin ok?  
ok… lmk when ur up for talkin again… 

hey ultimate loser  
lmfao no way id totally beat u  
BET  
ok lets do it RN fake  
YEAH, SERIOUSLY

can u come meet me? pls  
yeah im ok.  
just wanna talk ig 

late night huh?  
text me when ur home. even if u think im asleep.  
…i miss you.  
love you

 

They’ve texted like this for a while now—he can’t recall how long, years maybe—but every time he hears the soft chime, specifically assigned to the blue hedgehog, every time he rereads each message with its messy, casual disregard for grammar, there’s still a feel like overflow in his chest.

He’s had to get used to reliving life, but he’ll never get used to living it with Sonic.

It’s 4:13 in the morning, and Shadow, tired from a late night assignment, is slung over the arm of the sofa in Rouge’s living room, feeling melancholy and lonely. Of course he texted Sonic back the moment he stepped through the door, barely having finished putting his keys back into his bag, a full five hours past the initial message. He knew it would be his luck that their schedules had flipped again, but he still hoped that, maybe, Sonic had shifted into night owl mode, and he could tell his boyfriend all about the non-confidential parts of his night—but that had been nearly half an hour ago, and so now, he lay there in the dark, too sad to sleep, scrolling through old texts for some sense of company.

He’ll never get used to living his life with Sonic, because Sonic gives him things to look forward to.

And subsequently, things to be disappointed in.

It’s a strange kind of disappointment. Not the kind of disappointment he’s used to—the kind that breaks one down with a single blow, feels like a reminder that nothing good can happen—but a new type of disappointment that feels like a void waiting to be filled. It’s a type of disappointment that promises things won’t be disappointing for so long—something akin to hope.

Shadow doesn’t always know what to do with hope.

It’s tiring to work and return to a quiet apartment, a silent phone with no soft chime or glow in the dark, but unlike the other disappointments in his life, Shadow knows that there’ll be a reprieve from it if only he waits the loneliness out. It’s the kind of disappointment that can still pick at him in pieces, but it has an eventual end.

He sets the phone face-down on the end table, and rests his head on his arm, tired eyes finding relief in the darkness. The quiet room invites quiet thoughts, and the messages with their messy, casual disregard for grammar running through his head invite quiet feelings. He still finds it strange that something so simple as a short message transmitted from one device to another, one person to another, can stir up such deep feelings in him. He still finds it strange that he can have such deep, complex feelings for another feeling—that another person can have such deep feelings for him.

That even short distances in time and space between them can overwhelm his heart so.

That he can still feel alive.

He’ll never get used to living life with Sonic, because Sonic strengthens his resolve to live it, even in the quiet melancholy of distance.

It’s always in the quiet melancholy of distance that Shadow begins to contemplate these things and to analyze his relationship with Sonic. He imagines that Sonic rarely frets over it the way he does, inspecting every little interaction and aspect for some kind of meaning and sense. He doesn’t think that Sonic _needs_ to; Sonic _gets_ the social-emotional in ways Shadow never could.

Shadow pauses at another text message— _im reading this book abt flowers & this one reminded me of u_—and smiles despite himself.

As he reaches the end of the message log again, Shadow’s eyes struggle to stay open even faced with the brightness of his screen. He pulls up to refresh the screen one more time, in case he missed anything, but is greeted with the same five-and-a-half-hour-old message. He doesn’t want Rouge to come home and find him asleep on the couch again, but the bedroom feels impossibly far. Something about the small, confined space of the couch has always been more comforting to him, anyway.

He begins to drift off, thoughts of Sonic and lives Shadow’s had and have fading in and out of his mind, when a familiar chime pulls him back into consciousness and makes his heart leap in his chest. 

 

dude im soooo tired n goin back 2 sleep in like 5 secs  
but i woke up n saw ur txt n now i can sleep easy lol  
lets grab burgers tomorrow i miss u  
ultimate pain in the ass  
jk (mostly)  
i love you  
night

 

Shadow sets the phone down again and smiles.

He’ll never get used to living life with Sonic, but he’s happy to try.

**Author's Note:**

> day 1 for @SonadowWeek at Twitter!


End file.
